What does a successful wellness program look like? Or more importantly, how is it measured?
Successful workplace wellness programs are those that provide ways of viewing and assessing program data and the ability to implement these insights for positive change. Here are three ways wellness programs in 2022 need to be able to deliver measurable results.
Your employees have access to your wellness program but are they using it? How “sticky” is the experience? Stickiness is an engagement metric that allows an organization to evaluate how often users return to an app. It is measured by comparing the percentage of monthly app users (MAU) to either the percentage of weekly app users (WAU) or daily app users (DAU). The closer the daily or weekly percentage matches the monthly percentage, the greater the stickiness.
Wellness programs need stickiness to empower behavior change. Only 10% of the population stick to their New Year’s resolutions to be more active and a third of people who purchase a wearable abandon it within 6 months. In contrast, wellness apps that are easy to use, give clear instructions, provide a benefit to users and offer personalization drive higher engagement and greater stickiness. Stickiness is not only a measure of how often your employees are engaging with your wellness program, it is a precursor to the adoption of long-lasting healthy habits.
The adoption of healthy habits reduces the risk of chronic disease and improves the quality of daily living. Employees are happier and healthier; employers realize cost savings through improved productivity and a decrease in health-related expenses.
Currently, 6 in 10 Americans are living with a chronic disease and less than 25% get the recommended amount of weekly exercise. Look for employee wellness programs that can demonstrate a change in behavior over time, for example, an increase in physical activity over 12 months of app usage. Ask for the correlation between app usage (challenge participation, content consumption, social engagement) and disease risk scores.
Traditional Health Risk Assessments (HRAs) provide a snapshot of your employee population’s health. They are useful for determining areas of need and program planning but compliance is often low and the static data quickly becomes outdated.
In contrast, a digital HRA delivered through your wellness app and powered by real-time data provides up-to-date insights into predictive disease risk modelling and wellness scores in order to drive actionable change within your population. Increase the quality of your data, and the quantity, with a seamless employee experience for significantly increased completion rates.
A real-time HRA works by including wearable device, smartphone and manually tracked activity data with heath variables (BMI, sleep, waist circumference, drinking and smoking behaviors) and comparing results to industry-leading population data sets to generate scientifically validated personalized user wellbeing scores.
In 2022, companies need to look for solutions that provide real-time insights to support employees where they are and as they change. Including HRA scoring within your wellness platform allows employees to understand how their actions impact their health while providing the tool for behavior change.
It’s difficult to carry out a homegrown wellness program (or even get the data to get started) in a homegrown way. That’s why having a partner with tailor-made solutions who understands the challenges of getting engagement initiatives adopted by the workforce is critical.
Sprout At Work’s digital platform connects your workforce and delivers measurable outcomes. You’ll build trust, foster a thriving work culture, all while driving your company’s corporate health.
Ready to invest in wellbeing to see happier and more productive employees? Book your discovery call today to see how we can move the wellness needle in your organization.
